Irony of Investment

The site in Taylor, Texas where Samsung Electronics will build a plant

JASM, a joint venture of TSMC, Sony and Denso, initiated plant construction in Kumamoto, Japan in April this year. The plant is to produce 55,000 12-inch wafers a month and is to be put into operation in late 2024.

Regarding the construction, the Nikkei recently reported that JASM is currently recruiting engineers to work at the plant and this recruiting may lead to an engineer shortage on the part of local semiconductor companies. According to the report, JASM is planning to pay the engineers a monthly salary of 280,000 yen and it is more than 40 percent higher than the average pay from Kumamoto-based companies.

The same is already occurring in South Korea. With Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix trying to recruit more engineers, smaller companies in the industry are finding it almost impossible to get new workers. DB HiTek recently raised its initial annual salary and bonus to the same level as Samsung Electronics and some design solution companies are trying to recruit and retrain engineers from Vietnam.

The same problem is emerging in the United States, too. Especially, in Arizona, both Intel and TSMC are making investments and their recruiting competition is likely to intensify. Samsung Electronics, which is going to start plant construction in Taylor, Texas this month, is also likely to face the same situation.

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